Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Hospital Corpsman Receives Silver Star


Camp Lejeune, N.C.-Sometimes you do what you know, and sometimes your training kicks in and you follow that and your instincts. When under attack in Afghanistan two years ago, the training and instincts of hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Joshua Simson kicked in, and he protected his patients and worked to defeat the enemy.
Interested in Hospital and Medical Training? Click here for the military programs available in each of the Armed Forces.
Simson came under fire in July 27, 2007 in a village of Saret Kholet in Afghanistan. He was part of an embedded fire team that took fire, and he went in again and again to rescue different members wounded on the battle field. And at the times he was not directly providing medical attention, he was firing his weapon at the enemy.
Corpsman Simson is an example of the kinds of valor and bravery shown every day by our soldiers on the front lines. He doesn’t feel that he did anything special, just that which he was trained for and worked to do it well.

PHARMACY TECHNICIAN

HM-8482. Pharmacy Technician. If you like people and want to be on the front lines assisting patients, join one of the most respected professions in Navy Medicine. Pharmacy Technicians are the direct link between health care providers and patients. The pharmacy technician’s job is not just filling prescriptions. You will learn and put into practice which medications treat which diseases, patient counseling and dispensing, medication substitutions, pharmaceutical calculations, compounding, intravenous admixtures, and pharmacy administration.
SRB: Zone A = 1.5 Zone B = 1.0

HOSPITAL CORPSMAN RANKING

HR -Hospitalman Recruit (E-1)
HA -Hospitalman Apprentice (E-2)
HN -Hospitalman (E-3)
HM3 -Hospital Corpsman Third Class (E-4)
HM2 -Hospital Corpsman Second Class (E-5)
HM1 -Hospital Corpsman First Class (E-6)
HMC -Chief Hospital Corpsman (E-7)
HMCS-Senior Chief Hospital Corpsman (E-8)
HMCM-Master Chief Hospital Corpsman (E-9)

INDEPENDENT DUTY CORPSMAN

As an IDC, you'll serve as the Medical Department Representative (MDR) aboard surface ships, with units of the Fleet Marine Force (FMF), and at various duty stations around the globe, often times, independent of a medical officer. The IDC performs patient care and associated shipboard administrative and logistical duties. Diagnostic procedures, advanced first aid, basic life support, nursing procedures, minor surgery, basic clinical laboratory procedures, and other route and emergency health care is not beyond the IDCs scope of practice. Many duty station require the IDC to conduct and direct preventive medicine and industrial health surveillance programs. Also a teacher, the IDC provides education to junior medical and all nonmedical personnel. When assigned to shore duty, IDCs serve primarily as non-physician health care providers.

PREVENTIVE MEDICINE TECHNICIAN

HM-8432 Preventive Medicine Technician - Assists Medical Department Officers in the performance of Preventive Medicine and Occupational Health Programs for Navy and Marine Corps forces ashore and afloat. Performs inspections and surveys of food and food service facilities, berthing spaces, barber and beauty shops, child care facilities, recreational facilities, swimming pools, potable water systems, solid waste and waste water disposal sites and systems, vehicles, and transport containers. Conducts bacteriological analysis of food, water, and ice samples. Conducts epidemiological investigations and reporting (Disease Alert Report), interviews and counsels sexually transmitted disease and other communicable disease patients and contacts, administers mass immunization programs and conducts nosocomial infection control programs. Applies statistical methods to human mortality, morbidity, and demographic studies. Conducts disease vector control programs. Is proficient in all aspects of field sanitation. Is proficient in medical and sanitary aspects of CBR defense. Under the supervision of occupational health professionals, assists in ensuring that work place environments are healthful, consistent with existing NAVOSH standards, through surveillance of the work place and medical surveillance of personnel exposed to work hazards. Instructs medical and nonmedical personnel in preventive medicine, industrial hygiene, environmental health and occupational health matters.
SRB - Zone A = 1.0, Zone B = 2.0, Zone C = 4.5

Monday, April 6, 2009

Uniform of Hospital Corpsman During WWII




This WWII Pharmacist Mate 2nd Class (Petty Officer) wears the first pattern "sage green" HBT three pocket tunic. Note the "USMC" Globe and Anchor on the pocket and Petty Officer 2nd Class stenciled on left sleeve (the is an original tunic and stencils). This pharmacist mate is also wearing the standard USMC camouflage trousers. Footwear is the "LPC" (Leather Personel Carrier) or Boondocker roughout boots. Note the leggings have been discarded as was common practice in amphibious units. Helmet cover is the '"second pattern" without foliage slits. The pharmacist mate carries a 1st pattern "Unit 1" bag or "Hospital Corps Pouch, small" and wears the standard issue pistol belt with two canteens. The location is in front of a burned out Japanese pillbox complex on an island in the Southwest Pacific. The exact location is classified.

John Bradley


Born: July 10, 1923 Antigo, WI.

Died: January 11, 1994 Antigo, WI.


"Doc" Bradley was a Navy Corpsman medic and one of the six flag raisers on top of Mt Suribachi, Iwo Jima, who "just jumped in to lend a hand." He later won the Navy Cross for heroism and was wounded in both legs. He was a quiet private man who gave just one interview in his life. In it he said: "People refer to us as heroes,I personally don't look at it that way. I just think that I happened to be at a certain place at a certain time and anybody on that island could have been there. We certainly weren't heroes, and I speak for the rest of them as well, that's the way they thought of themselves also."

Hospital Corpsman Medal Of Honor Recipients

Hospital Corpsmen who received the Medal of Honor
Pre-World War I
Hospital Apprentice Robert H. Stanley, USN (Boxer Rebellion)
Hospital Apprentice First Class William Zuiderveld, USN (Veracruz Incursion)
Hospital Apprentice Fred H. McGuire, USN (Philippine Insurrection)
Hospital Steward William S. Shacklette, USN (Boiler Explosion in San Diego)
World War I
Pharmacist's Mate First Class John H. Balch, USN
Hospital Apprentice First Class David E. Hayden, USN
World War II
Hospital Apprentice First Class Robert Eugene Bush, USN
Pharmacist's Mate 2nd Class William D. Halyburton, Jr., USNR
Hospital Apprentice First Class Fred F. Lester, USN
Pharmacist's Mate First Class Francis J. Pierce, USN
Pharmacist's Mate Second Class George E. Wahlen, USN
Pharmacist's Mate Third Class Jack Williams, USN
Pharmacist's Mate First Class John H. Willis, USN
Korean War
Hospital Corpsman Third Class Edward C. Benfold, USN
Hospital Corpsman Third Class William R. Charette, USN
Hospitalman Richard D. Dewert, USN
Hospitalman Francis C. Hammond, USN
Hospitalman John E. Kilmer, USN
Vietnam War
Hospital Corpsman Second Class Donald E. Ballard, USN
Hospital Corpsman Third Class Wayne M. Caron, USN
Hospital Corpsman Third Class Robert R. Ingram, USN
Hospital Corpsman Second Class David R. Ray, USN

Hospital Corpsman Pledge

"I solemnly pledge myself before God and these witnesses to practice faithfully all of my duties as a member of the Hospital Corps. I hold the care of the sick and injured to be a privilege and a sacred trust and will assist the Medical Officer with loyalty and honesty. I will not knowingly permit harm to come to any patient. I will not partake of nor administer any unauthorized medication. I will hold all personal matters pertaining to the private lives of patients in strict confidence. I dedicate my heart, mind and strength to the work before me. I shall do all within my power to show in myself an example of all that is honorable and good throughout my naval career."

Hospital Corpsman History


Prior to the establishment of the Hospital Corps, enlisted medical support in the Navy was limited in scope. In the Continental Navy and the early US Navy, medical assistants were assigned at random out of the ship's company. They were commonly referred to as Loblolly Boys, a term borrowed from the British Royal Navy and a reference to the daily ration of porridge fed to the sick. The nickname was in common use for so many years that it was finally officially recognized by the Navy Regulations of 1814. In coming decades, the title of the enlisted medical assistant would change several times - from Loblolly Boy, to Nurse (1861), and finally to Bayman (1876). A senior enlisted medical rate, Surgeon's Steward, was introduced in 1841 and remained through the Civil War. Following the war, the title Surgeon's Steward was abolished in favor of Apothecary, a position requiring completion of a course in pharmacy.
Still, there existed pressure to reform the enlisted component of the Navy's medical department - medicine as a science was advancing rapidly, foreign navies had begun training medically skilled sailors, and even the US Army had established an enlisted Hospital Corps. Navy Surgeon General J.R Tyron and subordinate physicians lobbied the Navy administration to take action. With the Spanish-American War looming, Congress passed a bill authorizing establishment of the US Navy Hospital Corps, signed into law by President William McKinley on 17 June 1898. A revision in 1916 established the rates of Hospital Apprentice and Pharmacist's Mate, a structure that would remain in place for over thirty years.
During World War I, Corpsman served throughout the fleet, earning particular distinction on the Western Front with the Marine Corps. A total of 684 personal awards were awarded to Corpsman in the war, including 22 Medals of Honor, 55 Navy Crosses, and 237 Silver Stars.
In World War II, Hospital Corpsman hit the beach with Marines in every battle in the Pacific. Joe Rosenthal's iconic photo of the flag-raising on Iwo Jima, captured during that battle's early days, depicts Pharmacist's Mate Second Class John Bradley among the group of Marines on Mt. Suribachi that day. They also served on thousands of ships and submarines. Notably, three unassisted emergency appendectomies were performed by Corpsman serving undersea and beyond hope of medical evacuation. The Hospital Corps has the distinction of being the only corps in the U.S. Navy to be singled out in a famous speech by Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal after the conclusion of the war.[1]
Hospital Corpsman continued to serve at sea and ashore, and accompanied Marine units into battle during the Korean and Vietnam Wars. Fifteen Corpsman were counted among the dead following the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983. Today, Corpsman are serving in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
Prior to selection to the Command Master Chief program, the 11th (July 10, 2006 - December 12, 2008) MCPON, Joe R. Campa, was a Hospital Corpsman.

Disclaimer

Information on this site has not been approved or sanctioned by the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps.